The Jordan River Trail in Taylorsville

The trail here has no separate mileage of its own, because it is one stretch of a single system. The Jordan River Parkway runs about 45 miles up the valley, from Utah Lake to the Great Salt Lake, and Taylorsville's eastern edge is one length of that line. For a real distance, measure the piece you plan to ride between two access points rather than looking for a citywide number.

The posted hours are 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. in most sections. Those are Taylorsville's rules on the ground the city maintains, and a long trail crosses several jurisdictions without a sign on the path to mark where one ends. The city also asks that dogs stay on a leash everywhere except the fenced Millrace dog park, and that waste be picked up, which it treats as a water quality rule rather than a courtesy.

At four public spots, and each one has a different manager. Millrace Park, at 5400 South 1150 West, is the city's own and the most complete, with parking, restrooms and a stocked pond. Little Confluence Open Space, near 4800 South at the river, is county ground with a nature trail and a boat ramp. A Rocky Mountain Power parking lot at 925 West 4800 South opens onto about nine acres of parkway, and the county keeps a smaller trailhead at 4800 South 580 West.

Several agencies share it, inside a couple of miles. The City of Taylorsville owns Millrace Park. Salt Lake County owns the confluence open space and the smaller trailhead at 4800 South 580 West. The State of Utah owns the Jordan River Reserve at 4880 South 850 West, about ten acres left undeveloped with no amenities. Rocky Mountain Power owns the trailhead parking lot at 925 West 4800 South. Nothing on the path itself tells you when you cross from one to the next.

It is about nine acres of county open space at the point where Little Cottonwood Creek joins the Jordan River, near 4800 South on Taylorsville's eastern edge. There is a nature trail, a boat ramp and small picnic pavilions, with fishing, paddling and birding, and it stays open around the clock. Salt Lake County has planted hundreds of cottonwoods and willows there through its Million Trees Program with TreeUtah, and the site is still filling in.

On Taylorsville's eastern boundary, near 4800 South, at about 4,490 feet. Little Cottonwood Creek rises near Cecret Lake at roughly 11,500 feet, runs close to 28 miles down its canyon and across Sandy, Midvale and Murray, and drains a basin of 46 square miles before it arrives. The name Little Confluence sets this junction apart from Big Cottonwood Creek's, which reaches the same river a short way to the north.

Yes. The system includes an equestrian trail alongside the paved path, plus several short neighborhood connectors, so riding is genuinely part of it, though most people on the paved surface never notice the horse trail. If riding is your reason for coming, check the current condition and the access points with Salt Lake County or the Jordan River Commission rather than assuming one continuous route.

There is a boat ramp at Little Confluence Open Space, so you can put in. The Jordan River is not a beginner float, though: it has diversion structures that must be carried around, and the launch points, mapped reaches and seasonal cautions are kept by the Jordan River Commission and on the county parkway guide, rather than under any one city. Read those first. A ramp is permission to launch, not a description of what is downstream.

Yes, on a leash, everywhere except one spot. The only fenced off leash area is the Millrace dog park, and using it takes a permit, which is a step more than most valley dog parks ask. The city also treats picking up after a dog as a water quality rule rather than a courtesy, which fits a corridor built around a river. Sort the permit before you travel if the off leash area is the point.